Stepping Into His Friend’s Shoes

Ruben Santiago-Hudson Plays August Wilson in a New Show

Ruben Santiago-Hudson, left, will perform August Wilson’s autobiographical one-man play, “How I Learned What I Learned.” Right, Wilson in the show at the Seattle Repertory Theater in 2003.Credit
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Ruben Santiago-Hudson has starred in August Wilson’s plays, winning a Tony Award for “Seven Guitars” in 1996. He has directed Wilson’s plays, recently winning Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards for “The Piano Lesson.” And he served this year as artistic director for New York Public Radio’s readings and archival recording of Wilson’s 10-play cycle about the African-American experience in the 20th century. In other words, he has become perhaps the foremost interpreter of this legendary playwright, who died of liver cancer in 2005.

Now Mr. Santiago-Hudson, who also has been a regular in AMC’s “Low Winter Sun” and is readying a play of his own for a reading next March, is gearing up for a most unusual challenge. Beginning Tuesday, he’ll be stepping into his friend’s shoes, portraying Wilson in the playwright’s autobiographical one-man show, “How I Learned What I Learned” at the Signature Theater. He sat down with Stuart Miller at the theater recently to talk about the role and Wilson in general. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q. How did you end up playing August Wilson?

A. When I was directing [Wilson’s] “Gem of the Ocean” at the McCarter Theater, I was reading [his] “Jitney” one day, and I was crying. Tears were coming out of my eyes when the phone rang, and it was August. He said, “You should do my play.” I said, “I can’t do it.” He said, “You’ve got to do it, and then everyone can have it, but you’ve got to do it first.”

Do you think he had written it for him to perform and changed his mind after he got sick? Or do you think he always intended for others to perform it?

I’m not equipped to really answer that, but I would think he wrote it just for him. I think it was out of desperation to keep the play going that he chose somebody else to do it, and I was just blessed that he chose me.

He was a very stubborn, man and he refused to let me say no. Knowing he was facing his mortality, I couldn’t say no. That was the last conversation we had, and it ended with me saying, “I’ll do it.”

And then I said: “I’m going to get ‘Jitney’ on Broadway. I’m going to complete that 10-play cycle for you.” But then “How I Learned” sat there for a while, and I hoped everybody had forgotten about it. But he had also told his wife that he wanted me to do it, and he had also told [the Signature artistic director] Jim Houghton that he wanted me to do it. So after we kind of dealt with the loss of August — which took some time — we decided to do it. We’ve put his death into perspective and now we want to honor him in this way.

Did you see August do this show?

I saw him do some of it in a speaking engagement at Roxbury Community College in Boston. He started telling the stories for about 20 minutes. I had heard some of them before, just in conversations with him but not all. Afterward he said, “That’s part of my one-man show.” I didn’t know he had a show.

We’ve talked before about how you really “became” Canewell in “Seven Guitars,” how you immerse yourself in a role. Will you become August Wilson for this show?

August and I do talk similarly, same cadences. We have different tones — he has a more hushed tone, and I obviously am a bigger voice — but the rhythms are the same, we both speak the rhythms of Northern colored people. But I think I’d do a disservice if I try to be him. You’d come in and do a study of my impersonation as opposed to listening to a man’s life and journey. I want you listening to August’s life through someone who loved him. I’m witnessing for him. August is in me, and he will reveal himself.

Will your performance enable others to do the show further down the road? Could it be done by people who didn’t know August?

In an ideal world, there will be 10 people in 10 different cities doing this at some point. Those actors will have an advantage. Twenty years from now no one will remember what kind of cigarettes August smoked or what he sounded like, so those actors won’t be under the same microscope I’m going to be under.

Given the current business climate for theater, will you be able to fulfill your promise and get “Jitney” to Broadway?

I have no doubt I will get it done. Producers are holding me up to a different measuring stick, saying I’ve got to have Denzel [Washington] to do “Jitney.” They didn’t need Charlize Theron to do “Glass Menagerie.” Tracy Letts and Amy Morton did “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Stars? Why do I need a star? Black plays are held up to a different standard. Let me do a wonderful play on Broadway with a wonderful cast and a wonderful production and see if they come. And it will be an event — the final play in the 10-play cycle to come to Broadway, with at least four of the original cast members in it. August Wilson is the star here.

If that happens, will there be anything left in his plays for you to accomplish?

I will never be satisfied. Of course, I’m finding new writers to work with like [Pulitzer Prize winner] Quiara Alegría Hudes. I’m directing “The Happiest Song Plays Last” at Second Stage in February. I really love her as a writer, and I love her Puerto Rican roots.

But I’ll never ever release August. I have never played Troy Maxson in “Fences.” It’s a lot to look forward to.

A version of this article appears in print on November 3, 2013, on page AR6 of the New York edition with the headline: Stepping Into His Friend’s Shoes. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe